Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix

"Viva la Hawk?"

Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix is one part Viva la Bam and one part Pro Skater, a strange and satisfying mix of insanity and, well, insanity. On the PSP, you're getting the entire kit and kaboodle that came out on consoles half a year ago plus half more. A pretty good deal by anyone's standards, and the game delivers exactly the same graphics and framerate that you are used to on the bigger brother Playstation 2. To be honest, the fact that the PSP version of Tony Hawk is indistinguishable from its console brethren is mind-boggling. Whether by the merit of good developers or a surprisingly powerful handheld, this game delivers the console Tony Hawk experience in the palm of your hands.

Graphics

Unless you don't mind giving yourself a coronary looking over every graphical detail, this game looks exactly the same as the Playstation 2 version. That's right, it looks identical. It also has an impressive framerate that rarely bogs down and even the ghosting, which is so prevalent in launch PSP games, is hardly an issue.

Bam Margera is a goofball in real life and, true to form, the characters in THUG2 are goofy and slightly unrealistic (this is true for the console iterations as well). What's surprising, though, is the level of detail in the clothing. You can see the individual seams in your skater's pair of jeans, as well as individual fingers and accessories. Pretty impressive for a handheld.

Like most of the rest of the package, graphically you're getting the same game that came out on consoles.

Sound

An excellent mix of punk rock and hip hop (and even some Sinatra) will keep you feelin' funky until you turn the game off. Yes, you can hear Bam Margera's incredibly annoying and esoteric ramblings, as well as Tony Hawk's incessantly drab attempts to sound cool. Whatever the case, the voice quality and music quality are both CD-level.

Activision threw every song from the console versions into the PSP version, which is nice, but it would have been even nicer to have custom soundtracks (which, believe it or not, is a feature of the PSP as well as the Xbox). Nevertheless, what more can you expect from a launch title?

Gameplay

If you've played Tony Hawk before you know exactly what you're getting into. Basically as an unnamed skater you travel the world thwarting (or helping) the nefarious schemes of Bam Margera and Tony Hawk. Most of these schemes are outrageously stupid and occasionally unfunny, but for the most part it feels like an episode of Viva la Bam.

Making a return to the PSP version is "Classic" mode, which is essentially what the original three Tony Hawk games played like... doing a set number of missions in an area with a set amount of time. A nice return to old-school Tony Hawk "flava".

The PSP's analog stick is a bit underused in this game, and is only useful when running around off your skateboard. Also, the lack of the L2 and R2 buttons limit the number of tricks you can pull off (although you can still do the same amount of tricks that were on the Gamecube and Xbox versions).

Value

Activision completely loaded the UMD to the brim with stuff. One of the best values of the PSP launch.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/05